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S. Kratz and E.

Schnug / Landbauforschung Völkenrode 3 / 2007 (57):207-211 207

Homa Farming - a vedic fire for agriculture: Influence of Agnihotra ash on water solubility of soil P
Sylvia Kratz and Ewald Schnug1

Abstract Zusammenfassung

The influence of Agnihotra ash on the solubility of soil P Homa Farming - ein vedisches Feuer für die Landwirt-
was investigated applying three different extraction meth- schaft: Einfluss von Agnihotra-Asche auf die Wasser-
ods: 48-hour water extraction according to Lai (no year), löslichkeit von Phosphor im Boden
1-hour water extraction according to van der Paauw et al.
(1971) and CAL-extraction according to Schüller (1969). Anhand von drei verschiedenen Extraktionsmethoden
Applying the 48-hour water extraction, it was found that wurde der Einfluss von Agnihotra-Asche auf die Löslich-
Agnihotra-ash may increase the amount of extractable keit von P im Boden untersucht: durchgeführt wurden
P in soil. However, this effect was also generated with a eine 48-stündige Wasserextraktion nach Lai (ohne Jahr),
non-Agnihotra ash, which was produced without chanting eine 1-stündige Wasserextraktion nach van der Paauw et
a mantra, and not at sunrise or sunset. It was particularly al. (1971) und eine CAL-Extraktion nach Schüller (1969).
strong when the non-Agnihotra ash was produced in a cop- Die Ergebnisse der 48-stündigen Wasserextraktion zeigten,
per pyramid. The 1-hour water extraction according to van dass durch Agnihotra-Asche die Menge des löslichen P im
der Paauw et al. (1971) and the CAL-extraction were not Boden erhöht werden kann. Allerdings wurde eine ähn-
suitable to replicate the effects observed in the 48-hour wa- liche Wirkung auch bei der Kontrollasche beobachtet, die
ter extraction, i.e. no increase in the amount of extractable ohne das Singen eines Mantras und nicht zu Sonnenauf-
soil P was found in the ash treatments with these meth- oder –untergang erzeugt worden war. Besonders deutlich
ods. A possible explanation may be the time of soil / ash war der Effekt der Kontrollasche dann, wenn diese in ei-
contact, which may have been too short in the two latter ner Kupferpyramide hergestellt worden war. Weder die
extraction methods to allow the subtle energetic forces to einstündige Wasserextraktion nach van der Paauw et al.
unfold their effects. (1971) noch die CAL-Extraktion waren geeignet, die bei
der 48-stündigen Extraktion beobachteten Effekte zu repli-
Keywords: Agnihotra ash, homa farming, soil P solubility, zieren, d.h. die Ergebnisse dieser beiden Methoden zeigten
soil P extraction methods keinen Anstieg des löslichen P im Boden durch die Asche-
behandlungen. Ein Erklärungsansatz könnte in der Dauer
des Boden / Asche-Kontaktes liegen, die bei diesen beiden
Methoden möglicherweise zu kurz war, um eine volle Ent-
faltung der feinstofflichen Kräfte der Agnihotra-Asche zu
erlauben.

Schlüsselwörter: Agnihotra-Asche, Homa-Landwirtschaft,


Löslichlichkeit des Boden-P, P-Extraktionsverfahren

 Federal Agricultural Research Center (FAL), Institute of Plant Nu-


trition and Soil Science, Bundesallee 50, 38116 Braunschweig/
Germany; Email: sylvia.kratz@fal.de
208

1 Introduction of earth worm activity are postulated as a direct result of


Homa treatment (Paranjpe, 1989).
Homa or Yajnya is a pyramid fire technique passed down The cited reports indicate to a strong potential of Homa
from the ancient Atharva Vedas*. The technical term farming for improving plant performance in an ecologi-
Yajnya denotes a process of removing the toxic conditions cally sound manner. However, a prerequisite for a broader
of the atmosphere through the agency of fire. The thereby acceptance of this technique is a clear scientific documen-
healed and purified atmosphere is said to have beneficial tation based on replicable and exact experiments. While
effects on man, animals and plants (Paranjpe, 1989). most of the above cited effects of Homa therapy have not
The ancient knowledge about the pyramid fire was newly yet been scientifically explained or proven, first investiga-
revived in the middle of the 20th century by the Indian tions on the question of nutrient solubility with two Colo-
teacher Parama Sadguru Shree Gajanan Maharaj and his rado soils revealed an increase in P solubility when the
student, Shree Vasant V. Paranjpe. Today, it is mainly prac- soils were treated with Agnihotra ash (Lai, no year). The
ticed by organic farmers in South America and India, but aim of this study was to test if the results reported by Lai
is also gaining increasing attention in North America and (no year) could be reproduced with a German agricultural
Europe. soil under controlled laboratory conditions.
The basic Homa, called Agnihotra (sanskrit: agni = fire,
hotra = healing), is practiced in the rhythm of sunrise and 2 Materials and methods
sunset. A small fire is prepared from dried cow dung and
clarified butter (ghee) in a copper pyramid. Some grains of In the original experiment described by Lai (no year),
unbroken whole brown rice are put into the fire accompa- two types of ash were used to study their effect on water
nied by chanting a mantra. The ash produced by the fire is solubility of soil P: an Agnihotra ash produced as described
also accredited with having healing properties. Dissolved above, and a non-Agnihotra ash, produced with the same
in water and sprayed onto plants, it is said to have fertiliz- ingredients in the same copper pyramid as the Agnihotra
ing as well as plant protecting quality. Homa farming may ash, but not at sunrise or sunset, and without chanting a
be applied as a complementary method together with com- mantra. 
mon methods of organic farming. 5 g soil were mixed with 0.1 g ash (Agnihotra / non-Ag-
According to the ayurvedic medical doctor and scientist nihotra) and shaken in 25 ml water for 48 hours. The same
Priyadarshini (2005), the purification of the atmosphere amount of ash (Agnihotra / non-Agnihotra) was shaken
through Homa leads to an intensification of life energy without soil in 25 ml water for 48 hours. Finally, water
(= prana). It is postulated that plants under a Homa atmos- soluble phosphate content was measured in the water solu-
phere develop cylindrical veins (vascular tissue or bundles) tions.
with an above average diameter, permitting water and nu-
trients to move faster, and thus supporting plant growth and In the study presented here, a set of experiments was con-
reproduction. Furthermore, a stimulation of photosynthesis ducted based on the description given by Lai:
and plant respiration, which improves the entire oxygen
cycle, is attributed to this atmosphere (Paranjpe, 1989). Experiment 1: This experiment was conducted exactly
A couple of reports from India, Peru, Venezuela, the Unit- as described above, i.e. both Agnihotra (AA 1) and non-
ed States and Austria, some of them including scientific Agnihotra ash (NA 1) were produced in a copper pyramid
documentation, give account of the beneficial effects of (Table 1). 0.1 g ash were added to 5 g soil and shaken in
Homa farming on plant germination, development, health 25 ml deionised water for 48 hours. As a test soil, a German
and pest resistance, as well as on yield and product quality agricultural soil (dystric cambisol / orthic luvisol; texture:
(Atul et al., 2006; Bhujbal, 1981; Mutalikdesai, no year; silty-loamy sand, pH 5) was used. In addition to the ashes
Perales et al., 2000; Quintero, 1998; Schinagl, 2004). With and soil-ash mixtures, 5 g of soil without ash were shaken
regard to soil quality, an improved water holding capac- in water in the same manner. After shaking, the soil-ash-
ity, an increase in amount and solubility (plant availability) water solutions were filtered using Sartorius folded filters
of macro nutrients and trace elements and a stimulation (grade: 292), and P content was determined colorimetri-
cally according to John (1970).

* The Vedas are one of the most ancient religious texts still in exist- Experiment 2: In this experiment, the non-Agnihotra ash
ence. Passed on by oral tradition for centuries, they were written (NA 2) was produced in an iron vessel instead of a copper
down in Sanskrit starting in the second millennium B.C. The Atharva pyramid (Table 1), to investigate the influence of copper on
Vedas were written down around 200 B.C. and contain a collection
of hymns, mantras, chants, incantations and metaphysical texts (see the outcome of the experiment. Apart from this, everything
www.sacred-texts.com). else was done in the same manner as in experiment 1.
S. Kratz and E. Schnug / Landbauforschung Völkenrode 3 / 2007 (57):207-211 209

Experiment 3: In order to compare the extraction method by VDLUFA (1995) (Table 1).


described by Lai (no year) with extraction procedures com-
mon in Europe for the determination of plant available soil For each experiment, differences between treatments
P, a third experiment was conducted applying the water (NA, AA, no ash) were tested statistically by ANOVA and
extraction after van der Paauw et al. (1971) and the CAL Scheffé-post hoc test.
extraction after Schüller (1969). In order to keep these ex-
tractions comparable to experiments 1 and 2, the same soil- 3 Results and discussion
ash ratio as in the “Lai experiment” (i.e. 50:1) was chosen
for all extractions. In his original experiment, Lai (no year) found that the
addition of Agnihotra ash (AA) increased the amount of
All treatments were performed in 3 replicates. water extractable soil P by a factor of 4 to 5 compared to
non-Agnihotra ash (NA) (Table 2). A comparison with the
To determine total P, Cu and Fe contents, ashes were ex- amounts of water extractable P extracted from ashes shak-
tracted with aqua regia according to DIN EN 13346. P anal- en without soil shows that the amount of water extractable
ysis was done colorimetrically according to John (1970), P in treated soils did not solely originate from the addition
while Cu and Fe were analysed by ICP-OES. In order to of the ashes to the soils. Unfortunately, Lai did not test the
make the ashes comparable to conventional P fertilizers, P solubility in his soils without the addition of ash.
their P solubility in citric acid (CA) and water (W) was In the study described here, the amounts of water extract-
assessed according to the instructions for fertilizer analysis able P were generally about 2 to 3 orders of magnitude

Table 1:
Description of ashes used in the experiments (mean values of 3 replicates)

PAR PCA PW Cu Fe

Ash type mg/kg mg/kg % PAR mg/kg % PAR mg/kg mg/kg

AA 1 26338 19669 75 375 1.4 5626 29984


NA 1Cu 26991 19675 73 363 1.3 465 14669
AA 2 20319 20431 100 74.7 0.37 4921 16718
NA 2Fe 22498 21649 96 133 0.59 83 15082

AR = aqua regia, CA = citric acid, W = water / AA = Agnihotra ash, NA = non-Agnihotra ash

Table 2:
P solubility in experiments 1 and 2 in comparison to the “Lai experiment” (this study: mean values of three replicates)

Water extractable P
(mg P/0. g ash or mg P/5. g soil-ash mixture)
Ash type Soil yes/no Lai Lai This study This study
Colorado  Colorado 2 Ex. : copper Ex. 2: iron
NA -- 3.4 0.038 0.008
AA -- 8.9 0.026 0.007
NA + soil 2 .5 0.090a, x 0.024a, x
AA + soil 86 57.5 0.03b, x 0.055b, x
-- Soil only n.d. n.d. 0.004c 0.003c
Theoretical calculation: Sum of P in 5 g soil + 0. g ash
NA 0.042y 0.0y
AA 0.030y 0.00y
NA = non-Agnihotra ash, AA = Agnihotra ash; Ex. = experiment
Different letters denote significant differences at p < 0.05 (a, b, c: differences between ash treatments and soil only, tested by Scheffé-test; x,y: difference between soil-ash
mixture and theoretical calculation, t-test).
210

lower than reported by Lai (Table 2, experiments 1 and 2). ash in all four cases. Thus it is clear that some other factor,
The addition of Agnihotra ash (AA) resulted in a signifi- presumably on a kind of subtle energetic level, is responsi-
cantly higher amount of water extractable soil P than the ble for the observed increase.
addition of non-Agnihotra ash (NA) in both experiments, As shown in Table 3, the results of the 48-hour water ex-
however, the differences between AA and NA were much tractions could not reliably be reproduced with common
smaller than in the “Lai experiment”. While the addition extraction methods such as water extraction according to
of non-Agnihotra ash (NA, Ex. 2) produced in an iron ves- van der Paauw et al. (1971) and CAL-extraction accord-
sel generated roughly half as much water extractable soil ing to Schüller (1969). In experiment 3 ‑ 1, where the non-
P as the Agnihotra ash (AA, Ex. 2), water extractable soil Agnihotra ash had been produced in a copper pyramid,
P in the treatment with NA produced in a copper pyramid the soil-ash mixture had significantly lower amounts of
(Ex. 1) was only about 10 % lower than in the treatment extractable soil P than could be expected from the theo-
with AA (Ex. 1). Obviously, the use of copper (maybe in retical calculation (sum of P from soil and ash as single
combination with the pyramid shape) in the burning pro‑ components). In fact, the amount of extractable soil P in
cess plays an important role for the effect of ashes on soil P the soil-ash mixture was even lower than that in the pure
solubility. This assumption is strengthened by the fact that ash solution. Obviously, the soil had adsorbed some of the
copper content of AA 2 produced in a copper pyramid was soluble P brought into the mix by the ashes. From a holistic
by a factor of about 59 higher than that of NA 2 produced point of view it could be argued that the critical difference
in an iron vessel. When the NA was produced in a copper between the extraction applied by Lai and the common
vessel as well (Exp. 1, NA 1), however, its copper content extraction methods tested here is the time of shaking the
was still lower than that of the corresponding AA (Exp. 1, soil-ash-water mixture. In the “Lai experiment”, this mix-
AA 1), but this time only by a factor of 12 (see Table 1). ture is shaken for 48 hours, whereas the instructions by van
The analysis of water extractable P in the test soil with- der Paauw et al. (1971) and Schüller (1969) allot only 1 or
out any ash treatment (“soil only”) demonstrates that both, 2 hours, respectively, for shaking. Thus, there may not be
Agnihotra as well as non-Agnihotra ash, had a positive ef- enough time for the subtle energies supposed to be at work
fect on soil P solubility: Water extractable P was at least here to unfold their effects. However, this is not completely
10 times lower in the untreated soil than in the soil treated true in the case of the water extraction according to van der
with ash (Table 2). In order to check if the increase in water Paauw et al. (1971), as the soil-ash mixture is left standing
extractable P was solely the effect of the addition of P con- with 2 ml deionised water for 22h before filling it up with
taining ash, a theoretical calculation was performed (Ta- 70 ml deionised water and shaking.
ble 2) which revealed that the amount of P extracted from Interestingly, in experiment 3 ‑ 2, where the non-Agni-
the soil-ash mixtures (5.1 g) was clearly higher (2 to 5 hotra ash had been produced in an iron vessel, the results
times) than the sum of extractable P in 5 g soil plus 0.1 g were less distinct: Whereas in the case of Agnihotra ash,

Table 3:
P solubility in experiment 3 (mean values of 3 replicates)

Extractable P
(P-W: mg P/0.03 g ash or mg P/.53 g soil-ash mixture;
P-CAL: mg P/0. g ash or mg P/5. g soil-ash mixture)
Ash type Soil yes/no P-W P-CAL
Ex. 3 - : copper Ex. 3 - 2: iron Ex. 3 - : copper Ex. 3 - 2: iron
NA -- 0.074 0.06 0.920 0.448
AA -- 0.072 0.026 0.883 0.602
NA + soil 0.059a, x 0.027a, x 0.666a, x 0.529a, x
AA + soil 0.060a, x 0.049b, x 0.674a, x 0.729b, x
-- Soil only 0.003b 0.008c 0.049b 0.084c
Theoretical calculation: Sum of P in .5 g soil + 0.03g ash / 5 g soil + 0. g ash
NA 0.077y 0.024y 0.968y 0.532x
AA 0.075y 0.034y 0.932y 0.686y
W = water according to van der Paauw et al. (1971), CAL = calcium acetate-lactate according to Schüller (1969); NA = non-Agnihotra ash, AA = Agnihotra ash; Ex. = experi-
ment. Different letters denote significant differences at p < 0.05 (a, b, c: differences between ash treatments and soil only, tested by Scheffé-test; x,y: difference between soil-ash
mixture and theoretical calculation, t-test).
S. Kratz and E. Schnug / Landbauforschung Völkenrode 3 / 2007 (57):207-211 211

the soil-ash mixture did show a significantly higher amount 11.07.2007]


Paranjpe VV (1989) Homa therapy – our last chance. Madison, VA : Five-
of extractable soil P than expected from the theoretical cal-
fold Path
culation, the non-Agnihotra ash-soil mixture displayed
Perales JO, Solier L, Basurto A, Torres MR, Mendez JN (2000) Project
no or only a very slight increase in P solubility (Table 3). report : Homa therapy in the cultivation of cotton variety tanguis, 1999-
While the use of the iron vessel for the production of non- 2000 campaign. Lima, Peru, unpublished report
Agnihotra ash may be an explanation for the fact that the Priyadarshini S (2005) Homa – fire ceremony [online] Zu finden in
Agnihotra ash performed better than the non-Agnihotra <http://www.ayurvedahc.com/articlelive/articles/33/1/HOMA---Fire-
ash in experiment 3 ‑ 2, so far no reason can be found for Ceremony/print/33> [zitiert am 11.07.2007]
the different performance of Agnihotra ash in experiments Quintero C (1998) Project operation rejuvenation Venezuela – eradiction
of black sigatoka from plantain and banana plantations through Homa
3 ‑ 1 and 3 ‑ 2.
therapy at the south of Maracaibo Lake, unpublished report
Schinagl H (2004) Untersuchungen des Einflusses pflanzenstärkender
6 Conclusions Mittel auf Wachstum, Ertrag und Qualität gärtnerischer Nutzpflanzen.
From the results presented here, the potential of Homa Wien : Univ Bodenkultur
farming and Agnihotra ash in particular to improve the solu‑ Schüller H (1960) Die CAL-Methode, eine neue Methode zur Bestim-
bility and thus the plant availability of soil P is clearly visi‑ mung des pflanzenverfügbaren Phosphats im Boden. Z Pflanzener-
ble. However, a number of questions remain to be solved. naehr Dueng Bodenkd 123:48-63
Van der Paauw F, Sissingh HA, Ris J (1971) Een verbeterte methode van
As was shown in the experiments, the use of copper ves-
fosfaatextractie van grond met water : het Pw-getal. Wageningen : PU-
sels for burning appears to play an important role in the ef-
DOC
fectiveness of the fire technique. Further experiments with Verband Deutscher Landwirtschaftlicher Untersuchungs- und Forschungs-
vessels of different shape and material would be necessary anstalten (1995) Handbuch der landwirtschaftlichen Versuchs- und
to clarify the exact function of the different components in Untersuchungsmethodik : Bd. 2, Die Untersuchung von Düngemitteln.
the Homa technique. Another open question is the role of Darmstadt : VDLUFA-Verl., VDLUFA-Methodenbuch 2
time for the development of the subtle energetic processes
which are postulated to be at work here from a holistic
point of view. Future lab experiments should investigate
the influence of contact time between soil, ash and water
/ extractant on the amounts of soil P extracted from the
mixtures.

Acknowledgement

The authors of this paper gratefully acknowledge the con-


tribution of Dr. Ulrich Berk, head of the DGHT (Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Homatherapie / German Society for Homa
Therapy), who kindly produced the ashes used in the de-
scribed experiments.

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212

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